478 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 1, 1892. 
-the season, good dressings of Thomson’s manure. By this treat¬ 
ment we get strong leathery leaves that withstand disease, and if 
the spot does attack the foliage it does no injury to the fruit. Last 
year we had one house, 150 feet long, planted with Ham G-reen 
Favourite. Owing to faulty ventilation, and a few excessively hot 
days in June, the spot started on the leaves, and rapidly spread 
until every leaf was affected. We used no dressing of any kind, 
but paid strict attention to airing and watering. Though the 
leaves were spotted very badly to the last, it was the best house we 
had, gave nearly 1^ ton, cropped for six months, and fruit all 
sound. The varieties we like best are Eclipse, a Dew kind sent 
by Austin & McAslan, Glasgow, a few years ago ; Sutton’s Per¬ 
fection, Ham Green, and Conference. It is difficult to say which 
is best, as when well grown all are heavy croppers and smooth 
skinned. We have one plant which has borne an enormous crop 
.-of fine fruit. It was planted for Conference, but is so distinct 
that we think it must be a sport or self-crossed kind. A piece of 
stem cut off the top of the plant 18 inches in length carried fifteen 
finely shaped fruits weighing 8 lbs. The plant was 6 feet high, 
and was bearing for four months. As for quality, we have only to 
mention that they bring lid. per lb. in market, and have never 
throughout the past season realised less than 6d. 
Mushrooms. 
I intended writing you before now to tell you of the wonderful 
Mushrooms we have been gathering since August from a small 
border planted with Tomatoes, and strange though it may seem, 
we attribute the size and quality of the Mushrooms to the liberal 
use of the manure above mentioned. We were led to use this 
fertiliser as an agent in Mushroom growing by a letter we received 
some years ago from Mr. Murray, the able gardener at Culzean 
Castle, Ayrshire. He had an exhausted bed upon which he spread 
a good coating of this manure, watering it in. In a short time he 
was surprised to see the finest crop of Mushrooms he ever had ; so 
thick were they growing, he said, that he could fill a big basket 
without moving a foot. We took put two trenches about 1 foot 
deep and 1 foot broad in spring, spread in it a small quantity of 
old Mushroom bed, planted the Tomatoes in rows in the usual way, 
giving round each plant a good dressing of the fertiliser. The 
result has been good crops of Tomatoes and as fine Mushrooms as 
ever were grown. They came up in great colonies round the 
stakes supporting the Tomato plants : and acting upon the advice 
given in Wright’s “ Mushrooms for the Million,” of pulling them 
out by the roots, not cutting them off, we have had a succession of 
crops since August, and not exhausted yet. We watered in several 
•dressings of the manure, which benefited the Tomatoes as well as 
the Mushrooms, and have given us a very profitable little border, 
indeed ; we are getting 2s. per lb. for the latter, and some time ago 
had higher prices. We have gathered many Mushrooms 12 and 
13 ozs., very fleshy, and a beautiful snow white colour, so much so 
that many visitors could scarcely believe them to be Mushrooms at 
all.—D. Buchanan. 
ADIANTUM FARLEYENSE. 
Thinking a few notes respecting the above beautiful Adiantum 
might be of iuterest to your correspondent Mr. C. Russell and 
others, I have taken the opportunity to give my method of 
cultivation, which is attended with every success. I grow eighteen 
plants ranging from about 4 feet in diameter down to 18 inches. 
The larger plants were only placed in the pots they now occupy 
about two years ago. These pots are from 13 to 15 inches in 
diameter. The smaller plants are mostly in 6 and 7-inch pots, and 
these sizes suit my requirements best. I have never until recently 
tried to what size they can be growD. That is the object for 
which I have repotted several of them, and at the present time they 
are thriving admirably. 
I am of the 'pinion that this Adiantum succeeds best in yellow 
loam and leaf mould with plenty of opening material in the com¬ 
post such as burnt marl pounded fairly small, or charcoal and silver 
sand. The drainage must be perfect or failure will be sure to 
follow. The plants alluded to are grown on a side slate stage 
covered with whue spar at the end of the plant stove, with plenty 
of atmospheric moisture, but they are never syringed. This practice 
I disapprove of, a 3 the dense habit of the plant causes the pinnae 
of the fronds to damp when so treated, which badly disfigures them. 
They are never ov* rwatered, and in the winter months the moisture 
is reduced both in the soil and in the atmosphere. The fronds 
with us assume the most beautiful tints. This I think must be due 
to the comp >st, or perhaps with growing them in a very light 
span-roofed house. Probably both play a part in it, for I do not 
think they care about much shade, providing they do not get the 
direct rays of the sun. I have never seen this Fern do well in 
peat, and in poor soils it is always seen utvoid of that beautiful 
tinge of colour in the fronds which is so much admii&d. 
Having a number of p’ants in 8 and 9-inch pots whicn were 
getting impoverished, I split them up into sizes convenient to go into 
6-inch pots a year ago last spring. They were placed in the 
above compost. For weeks they hardly grew at all, but at last 
they began to move more vigorously, and at the present time they 
are 18 inches in diameter and in a healthy condition. I may add 
we use liquid manure moderately in the summer months, but 
chiefly to plants that are root-bound. 
What size this Fern can be grown to I cannot say, but Mr. 
Cromwell, now of Cleveley, Allerton, near Liverpool, once told me 
that he grew a specimen 7 feet in diameter in a compost of the 
above description, and exhibited the same at one of the Liverpool 
summer shows, but he said he had never reached that standard 
since. The general opinion is, I believe, that A. farleyense will 
grow to a certain size and then begin to decline.—J. J. C. 
Your correspondent, Mr. C. Russell, on page 456 of last week s 
Journal, wishes to hear from those who are successful in growing 
this beautiful Fern. May I relate my experience with it ? I had a 
few plants in 6-inch pots, which were used for table decoration 
from time to time, until they became root-bound. I placed them 
in 9-inch pots, and after a time transferred one to a 12-inch pot. Last 
year this plant measured 5 feet in diameter, when I gave it a shift 
to a 15-inch pot. and now it measures 5 feet 6 inches, and is growing 
fast. The plants are grown in a 9tove with other things which are 
syringed. I formerly used peat and sand for potting, but I find this 
Fern does much better potted in three parts fibrous loam to one of 
leaf soil with a sprinkling of coarse sand. I give them plenty of water 
in summer and a little weak liquid manure occasionally. I never 
allow them to become dry in winter, as they are always growing. 
Last spring I cut out all the o'd fronds from the largest plant.— 
Charles Payne, Gardener , Trashurst, Dorking. 
PRICES OF APPLES—SALESMEN. 
I notice on page 302 (October 6th) a statement about the price 
of Domino Apples and value per tree. As an example of the 
uncertainties of fruit growing and the impossibility of counting 
one’s chickens beforehand, I may say that, on looking over my 
returns, I find that the average price of this sort was about 2s. 9d. 
per bushel to the grower, instead of 6s., as reckoned by your 
correspondent, and that some which were sent to Covent Garden 
made there only 2s. per bushel, which is less than Is. per bushel 
home after deducting rail, commission, return of empties, and 
cartage. At the time Domino made about Is. home larger sorts 
made 2s. per bushel home for selected fruit. It is true that some 
of the others made sometimes during the season 6s. per bushel 
in Covent Garden, or about 4s. 9d. home, but this was very 
exceptional, and not the rule. The prices I obtained were better 
than that of my neighbour, and it will be seen from the above that 
the present is not a very favourable time for Apple growing for 
market, nor can the best acre be taken as an average. A grower 
here would have made about £800 nett profit if all h s ground had 
done as well as the best acre of Plums and Apples, but instead of 
this he has a loss of several hundred pounds on the whole of his 
fruit ground. 
I have got somewhat behind in my reading of the Journal 
owing to pressure of work. Since writing the foregoing I have 
read your notes in reference to the middleman on “The Fruit 
Supply and Prospects ” on page 343. I think with you that it is 
impossible to do without salesmen, and if they act justly and 
uprightly they are a great benefit to the grower. It is manifestly 
impossible for the grower to send his fruit direct to the fruiterers 
of a large town and collect the money. It may be done in a few 
instances, but not as a general rule. If a grower is to have the 
salesman’s profits, he must also have the salesman’s expenses and 
losses. He would of necessity require a stand and an agent to 
receive the money, and to know current prices, also to know to whom 
he can safely sell. As it is common now to send to many different 
markets, one would be required at each, while often it would not 
answer to send fruit to several markets. It would be found far 
more convenient to have a reliable salesman who is already in 
business there, and who knows his customers and their wants. 
I consider it is the salesman’s business to advise his senders not 
only when to send, but also when not to send, and to guide him as 
to quantity, &c. This is also for his own interest, for a few heavy . 
losses which might have been avoided by the salesman’s acquaint¬ 
ing the grower with the state of the market, make him fight shy 
of that market. Then, too, as regards the retailer. These are 
also a necessity unless the consumer requires a large quantity of 
